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The Passion of Paul McKeever's Critics: An Open Letter to Grasshopper

April 10, 2009 by · 4 Comments 

On February 28, 2008, I released a video titled “Straw Men are Huemerous”. It was a response to a paper written by Michael Huemer, a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, titled “Critique of ‘The Objectivist Ethics’ “. Huemer’s essay purports to be a critique of the first essay in Ayn Rand’s book “The Virtue of Selfishness”; an essay, titled “The Objectivist Ethics” (hereinafter “TOE”), that lays out the essentials of her ethical philosophy. Read more

A Short Note on Tolerance and Sanction

March 27, 2009 by · 1 Comment 

An acquaintance and fellow student of Objectivism read Leonard Peikoff’s “Fact and Value” this week. I asked him for his thoughts on it, and he wrote: Read more

Why Theft is Neither Ethical Nor Practical

January 13, 2009 by · 9 Comments 

Tom, an acquaintance of mine, is about to commence an ethics course. The outline for the course states:

The first part of the course addresses the challenge that the egoist (sometimes called the amoralist) poses for moral philosophy…The egoist is a person who doesn’t care about morality – all the egoist cares about is his or her own advantage and happiness, and he or she will be prepared to break any of our standard moral rules in order to secure it- just as long, that is, as he or she can get away with it.

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NEW VIDEO: Fractional Reserve Banking versus Ayn Rand's Ethics

November 5, 2008 by · 6 Comments 

Since former Federal Reserve head Alan Greenspan’s testimony on October 23, 2008, anti-capitalists of every stripe have seized the opportunity falsely to blame the money and banking crisis upon Ayn Rand’s philosophy and upon capitalism. At the same time, some have argued that Objectivism is compatible with fractional reserves in banking. For both reasons, I yesterday turned on the video camera and explained, extemporaneously, the nature of Ayn Rand’s objection to inflation, and why it implies an objection to fractional reserves. Read more

Banking and Morality: 100% Reserve versus "Fractional" Reserves

October 20, 2008 by · 42 Comments 

In written pieces (see here, here, and here, for examples) and in videos, I have advocated a 100% reserve requirement for banks. I am hardly original in doing so. A 100% reserve was advocated by the Chicago professors who advised Roosevelt during the banking crisis of the 1930s (see Ronnie Phillip’s excellent article on the topic); it is and was advocated by several economists of the Austrian school, including, according to Gary North, Ludwig von Mises; it was most famously advocated by famous American economist Irving Fisher; it was even advocated by Milton Friedman before he concluded that it was politically difficult to achieve, and settled, instead, for monetarism (see his “A Program for Monetary Stability). However, unlike some of those economists, my reasons are founded on ethics, not on economics: a 100% reserve prevents inflation of the money supply and, thereby, prevents non-consensual wealth redistribution. Read more

An Objectivist on a Life Boat

August 27, 2008 by · 9 Comments 

On August 26, 2008, I released a video that addressed the assertion – sometimes heard even amongst students of Objectivist philosophy – that “ethics don’t apply in life boat scenarios” or other emergencies. In the video, I spoke extemporaneously, but I thought my argument should nonetheless be made available in written format, for googlers and others who may prefer to read philosophical arguments, rather than to listen to them or to watch them. What follows is, for the most part (about 99% of it), a transcription of what I said in the video. However, I have removed contractions in most places and, in a small number of places where the spoken word left some ambiguity as to my meaning, I have made my meaning more clear. Read more

I've Chosen

August 20, 2008 by · Leave a Comment 

A cheeky declaration.
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Three Ideas Implicit in the American Revolution

July 6, 2008 by · 2 Comments 

The Western Standard (www.westernstandard.ca) asked me to write “a short, 250-word comment on the ideas motivating the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. My submission is still online, together with a number of other distinguished individuals’ submissions on the same topic. It all makes for some great food for thought.

What follows is my submission, as headlined and bylined by the fine editors of the Western Standard. Read more

Defending Multiculturalism for Dummies

June 1, 2008 by · 6 Comments 

YouTube's qtronmanOn the popular video sharing site YouTube, a philosophical vlogger who goes by the handle qtronman (and who is a member of the YouTube Objectivists Group) has started a video debate by condemning Multiculturalism as unjust. In his video, he makes it clear that, by “Multiculturalism”, he is not referring to experiencing cultural customs, foods etc, and that he embraces the idea of learning things of value that people have contributed to human knowledge, wherever they might live etc. He says that, instead, “Multiculturalism, again, says that you cannot judge other cultures”, and he argues that Multiculturalism leads to injustice because it is an assault on values and valuation. Read more

The Psychology and Morality of Buying Flowers for Your Lover

April 21, 2008 by · 4 Comments 

One of the legal assistants at my office complex (not an employee of mine, but one of another lawyer), Read more

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